I remember there was lot of talks around two or three years ago whether Nadal can continue with his Physical,grinding style which puts a lot of pressure on his body etc.

A lot of statements were made like McEnroe saying" His Body is writing cheques that his body cant cash". Tony Pickard was saying at 20 years his body has undergone lot of wear and tear and you wonder how much more can his body take" etc

Three years down the line, Nadal is still doing quite good. Having reached a lot of finals in 2011 only being edged out by extra ordinary Nole, and just last year he won 3 GS.

He looks over the hill at 25, so I wouldn't say completely unfounded. Then again, there were all those warning about Roddick's serving style making him prone to shoulder injuries, and that turned out to be the least of his problems.

But yeah, I think he does have more injuries than average, seeing he was injured at least 6 different times against Djokovic, and more against Fish, Dodig, and Tsonga etc.

If Nadal hasn't already put a nail in the coffin of those critics he definitely will soon as he continues to rack up the slams. Djokovic is the only player who can stop him, yet Djokovic is struggling to beat Federer in the slams and struggling with his own body. So I'd say the Nadal critics are walking tight rope right now. History will beckon if Nadal wins multiple slams in 2012.

He looks over the hill at 25, so I wouldn't say completely unfounded. Then again, there were all those warning about Roddick's serving style making him prone to shoulder injuries, and that turned out to be the least of his problems.

But yeah, I think he does have more injuries than average, seeing he was injured at least 6 different times against Djokovic, and more against Fish, Dodig, and Tsonga etc.

Nadal has been second best player this year, and much better than the pusher from Scotland

The problem with Rafa's style of play is the same it's always been. When he's facing someone like Murray here in Tokyo, Nole, Federer in London last year, Tsonga at the AO 2008 for examples, he's got a very, very hard time changing the course of the match because they can just overpower him and his topspin. His physicality, well, he's a bull physically but even today you can sense he getting fatigued by the end. And eventually all the running he does catches up to him and guys who can hit sharp shots deep on a consistent basis can break Rafa down.

Difference in slams is that Rafa's so physical that it's hard to keep playing on point offensively for a 5-set match for several hours. Therefore, Rafa is a lot more vulnerable outside of slams than in them.